A Young Champion of Women’s Colleges

My friend, Guy, looked at me like I had told him I’d eaten nails for breakfast. “You’re looking at all girls’ colleges, are you crazy?”

For most of my life I have considered myself a bit of a feminist. What sane girl wouldn’t? It was the feminists who were responsible for women’s suffrage, Title IX and the Equal Pay Act. So when it came time for me to decide what colleges I would apply to, I decided to do what so many girls now a days are forgetting. The majority of the schools I would apply to would be women’s colleges, specifically the seven sisters: the all-woman’s colleges that were a response to the once all-male Ivy League.

My dream has always been a career in politics, and never before in history have women held as many powerful positions as they do today. But because politics is still a predominantly male field, I know that coming from an all-women’s college, or even just a school where the female population is significantly higher than the male one, can give me an edge. At all-women’s colleges there is no fear of your intellect seeming unattractive. In fact, at these institutions women aren’t afraid that voicing their opinions may poorly represent their gender.

Applying to these schools, however, does come with the never-ending question that I received from not only girls but boys, too: “Why do you want to go to an all girl’s school? Don’t you like boys?”

Of course I like boys. I have a father and two brothers that I adore. And any of my friends will tell you I am a flaming heterosexual. However, when it comes to the time in my life when the education I receive will dictate how the rest of things will turn out for me, I don’t want the distraction of boys, and I don’t want to compete with them. In my high school experience, the majority of my teachers have tended to pick boys’ raised hands over those of the girls in class discussions. I’ve even had to endure one teacher tell this joke: “Why couldn’t Helen Keller play basketball?” The answer? “Because she was a woman.”

In my grandmother’s generation it was said that women went to college to get their MRS. Nowadays, even though no girl would admit that meeting her future husband is one of the things she hopes to accomplish in college, I think a lot of girls believe this is something they will miss out on at an all women’s institution. But isn’t getting an education supposed to be your top priority in college?

While my parents did meet in college, they didn’t have a single class together and met at a party, off campus. It’s also not as if college is boarding school, where you’re confined to just your campus. Two of the all-women’s colleges I’m looking at, Mount Holyoke and Smith, are in a five-college consortium. This means I can take classes at any of the five colleges in the area (three of which are co-ed). And the students at those universities (boys included) can take classes at the all-women’s colleges.

The summer before my senior year I toured six top-ranked, small liberal arts colleges in the Northeast, a third of which were women’s colleges. I wanted to see how these compared to the co-ed schools I was visiting. I paid special attention to the girls around me, trying to see if there was one “type” of girl interested in an all-women’s college. The only similarity I saw was their hunger for knowledge. Going around and introducing ourselves I heard an array of subjects the girls wanted to study and every girl seemed to participate in different extracurricular activities. These students also seemed much more sure of themselves than the students on the co-ed campus tours.

During my Mount Holyoke info session I heard a statistic that shocked me. Fewer than 2 percent of girls worldwide even consider going to a women’s college. U.S. News and World Report ranks the all-female Wellesley College No. 4 on its 2009 best liberal arts colleges list. But while Wellesley’s acceptance rate in 2007 was 35.7 percent, the school below it on the list, Middlebury College, had an acceptance rate of only 20.6 percent. This means girls have a much greater chance of getting into a better school if they can live without men in their classrooms for four years.

I was particularly excited about this statistic because I’ve always wanted to go to a great school in the northeast. However, my time spent in demanding varsity athletics and other extracurricular activities has taken a little away from my grades. Although they’re good, they’re not good enough to compete with the students with 4.0s applying to Harvard.

During my first two interviews, at Mount Holyoke and Smith, I felt slightly more comfortable than my last interview at co-ed Bowdoin. Having a woman interviewer walk out and introduce herself was much less scary then the same scenario with a man. With a woman, at the very least we had one thing in common.

Going to an all women’s school has forever had, and still has, incredible perks. Jackie Kennedy, Hillary Clinton, Julia Child and Emily Dickinson are all products of all-women’s colleges. What puzzles me is this: if these schools are good enough for some of the smartest, most influential women in history, why do 98 percent of girls worldwide cross them off their college list?

I appreciate your sentiment and wish you the best of luck. The answer to your closing question, however, is obvious. 98% of female college applicants do not apply to the all women schools you mention because those schools are outrageously expensive and far beyond the economic reach of all but a tiny minority of families.

I am a Smith grad and a few friends were somewhat wary of me attending there. But I loved it there and would do it again if I had to! I got a great education and made some amazing friends that I am still very close to 17 years after graduation. I actually didn’t apply because it was all women, I just applied because I got a great feeling when I went on a tour of the campus and met a bunch of students. There were times when I thought, what did I do? There are no guys here!! (That was usually during a really cold dreary day in February). But my professors were great and my housemates were really fun. Some of my friends dated guys from high school or summer jobs. The one thing you don’t have is friendships with men which I missed but everything else is worth it. All of my married female friends from Smith met their husbands through friends, through work or on-line (that’s where I met my husband!)

Sticker shock is a common reaction. But very few students end up paying the sticker price at women’s colleges, which represent an excellent value for motivated young women for so many reasons. They typically offer excellent financial assistance, grants and scholarships and offer a curriculum that is designed to allow you to take all the courses you want and need—so you can graduate in four years with no problem.

Hannah, I enjoyed your essay and I hope that other girls around the country take your points to heart. I would only add, and you would have no way of knowing this yet, that in these colleges there seems to be a stronger sense of community. Especially after college, I have benefitted from a wonderful alumnae association program that offers interesting talks from visiting professors near where I live. The education from my all-women’s college will be lifelong.

Almost all of the remaining women’s colleges are need blind, and an accepted applicant will receive financial aid as necessary to attend. Most are making this in the form of grants instead of loans. As with many of the top small liberal arts schools, the opportunities are limitless. I had one daughter attend one of the sisters, and am hoping my other daughter will be interested enough to look.

Just for the record, Wellesley (I am a graduate) offers need-blind admission. If you apply and are accepted, they will find a way to offer you enough scholarship money and financial aid for you to attend. That’s how I did it, since my family did not have the means to send me without financial help. Wellesley is certainly not beyond the means of any young woman who is able to get in, no matter what her family’s financial situation.http://www.wellesley.edu/Admission/financialaid/

Back in the 50’s I attended and graduated from Beaver College-a small women’s college outside of Philadelphia. It was GREAT! The editor of the paper, the president of the class, the valedictorians, the athletic teams, music and art shows were all women and “women’s work. I believe it gave us experiences that, especially in those days, would only be given to men. It also gave us opportunities to organize and lead others, enter into college politics and have the entire focus on women.

We did not lack for dates or meeting men. On weekends we were all over the area being invited to other colleges and universities. Or, the college held dances and activities and invited male students. But during the week, we were in our element for study and learning.

Beaver College is no longer. It has evolved into a coed university. Arcadia. Arcadia has an excellent reputation-but it is not the same.

In response to jmccw, I am a first year at Smith College and am certainly a part of that 98% of people who can’t really afford it. However, because Smith is Smith, we are lucky enough to have numerous endowments and contributions from our alumnae that make getting financial aid through school extremely easy. In fact, I got a better financial aid package here than I did at some of the larger co-ed universities I applied to. You have a valid point but that 98% of girls who can’t afford schools like Smith and Mount Holyoke should not, under any circumstances, let money be a deciding factor as to whether or not to apply. They would surely be surprised, as I was, to see that these schools want intelligent women whom they believe can make a difference in the world and are truly willing to help us figure out how to pay for school.

Though I’m impressed with this thoughtful post, it’s jarring to see the author refer to students of women’s colleges as “girls”.

After all, “It’s not a men’s schools without girls, it’s a women’s college without boys.”

Re: jmccw, above.
Most private educational institutions are outrageously expensive. But women’s colleges, specifically Smith, are also known for their fervent commitment to financial aid and attracting the most talented pool of applicants from across the economic spectrum.

You give me heart! Feminism is alive and well….and attractive to a new generation of young people.

Yes, women have come far in the last few decades, but men still dominate, particularly their point of view. Being strong and tough and hard are still valued over collaboration, understanding and accomodation. No wonder we are a world with so many wars going on.

25 years ago I read a story about 80% of women in “Who’s Who” had gone to women’s colleges. That’s powerful.

Jackie Kennedy started at Vassar – but graduated from George Washington, so I’m not sure she still counts as a product of an all women’s college.
Also, don’t take the college rankings too seriously – any liberal arts college ranked in the top 15 or 20 will give you virtually the same quality education. The difference between Wellesley and Middlebury isn’t going to make or break your career/intellectual development. Apply to Wellesley because you prefer single sex classrooms, not because it is ranked one higher. What does that even mean? It is “one” better?

I actually had a better financial aid offer from Mt. Holyoke College than I did from Michigan State University. Money was a big concern for my family, but a lot of the liberal arts colleges vowed to meet 100% of my demonstarted need. I got no such indication from MSU. The admissions guy, in fact, scoffed at me in a room full of my peers when I asked him about it during his visit to my high school. There was no such treatment at MHC, at least not for me. It’s been eight years and two months since that conversation. While I still applied to MSU because it was my safety school and it would make my parents happy, I focused my search on the women’s colleges, and I don’t regret it, not one bit! I couldn’t be happier that I wound up at Mount Holyoke. Best of luck to Ms. Smith.

You’ve clearly articulated the value of a women’s college: the women who are willing to really focus on their studies are going to be the leaders who change the world. Kudos to you!

Just want to mention that some co-ed universities do have women-only residential programs, for example, the University of Michigan has a splendid women-only residence hall as well as a women-only residential program for women in science and engineering.

Very few of my classmates at Bryn Mawr paid full freight. Because of that, I had a diverse group of friends, not only racially and ethnically, but geographically and socio-economically. I, an upper middle class Jewish girl from New York City, am happy to say that some of my very closest friends from college came from tiny midwest and southern towns, from places where going to school on the east coast was unheard of. What we all shared was a thirst for learning and knowledge, and a belief that we could find that in a community of women.

I am a proud alumnus of one of the five colleges and recommend you submitting applications to either Mt. Holyoke or Smith. As a male student, from my perspective, the caliber of students attending Smith and Mt. Holyoke exude positive attributes any successful person desires. I believe you will find the environments different; however, you will find a committed, strong, and positive influence regardless of the institution.

Regarding the costs of the private colleges, a significant majority of students at my alma mater, Mount Holyoke, receive financial aid, thanks in large part to alumnae who support our college in annual donations.

My mother was a graduate of Mount Holyoke, and I applied to the college to please her, but had no intention of going. I wanted to be in a co-ed college. When I got accepted by a number of college, I visited the campuses again, and the difference was night and day. The women on campus at MHC were smart, completely engaged in their education, friendly, and a diverse group of dynamic people who were very interested in recruiting me. The co-ed colleges, however, were breaking out the kegs at 4:30 on a Thursday afternoon, and resembled a giant frat house where the main goal was to get drunk and hook up. I realized my priorities more closely aligned with Mount Holyoke.

As for hanging out with cute guys, many men made the trip to campus from neighboring schools, we took road trips to Williams, and when the guys went home we were completely able to focus on work without the distractions. To experience co-ed life, many did a junior year abroad or did a campus exchange for a year.

I applaud Hannah Smith’s conviction to try out a women’s college, and I wish her all the best. If you do become a fellow alum. of any seven sister college, you’ll be joining a fantastic group of people who are worldwide achievers.

Dear Ms. Smith,
Congrats on making it to the college admissions stage. It seems like you will have a variety of great schools to choose from.
I want to encourage you to keep an open mind during this process. It doesn’t make much sense to pigeon-hole yourself into a specific type of school or geographic region. The reality is you can only tell so much from a tour or information session. The experience you have in college is what you make of it, shaped by the opportunities you seek out and the people you befriend.
As a recent Brown grad, I want to stress the lack of competition here and certainly in other prestigious schools. Just because there are men present does not mean they get called on more. If anything, they tend to even out the bell curve of grades and class attendance! I also value the opportunity I had to make close male friends and appreciated their viewpoints in class.
Overall, this is a personal decision. If you feel you will learn more and have better focus in an all-girls school, then go for it! Just beware of feeding into the stereotypes of an individual institution or group of schools. And remember, it all comes down to you how much you want men to be a “distraction” on your career path, not your college choice.
Best of luck!

Three cheers for this article! The numbers don’t lie — no matter what their chosen profession, women who have attended women’s colleges succeed at higher rates than their counterparts who attended co-ed colleges and universities. Attending a women’s college has a life-long positive impact on the woman as well as her family and community.

I am a proud graduate of Wilson College in Chambersburg, PA — not as well known as the Seven (now six) Sisters, but it gave me an education that put me in good stead in law school, where I competed successfully with women and men who had attended such places as Harvard, Princeton, and Dartmouth, and was elected editor in chief of the law review.

Comment #1 is wrong about the cost: Wilson continues to be rated a “best value” college by US News & World Report, and the Women’s College Coalition website will direct you to other women’s colleges that are in reach of just about every family. Wilson also founded a Women With Children program more than a decade ago, where single moms live on campus with their kids and go to college full-time. Such opportunities are rare at co-ed universities.

It is a shame that so many young women and their parents are afraid of considering women’s colleges, when the evidence repeatedly shows what a great track record these wonderful institutions have.

I have many friends who chose all-women’s colleges, so I have no argument with Ms. Smith’s enthusiasm for single-sex education. That said, some of her arguments seem to argue against the value of the experience just as much as they argue for it. If just interviewing with a male admissions officer makes her uncomfortable, how will she deal with interviewing for jobs and internships during and after college? Part of what the college experience should include is a willingness to go beyond one’s comfort zone. And while I agree (as the parent of two college students) that the quality of the education is very important to one’s college experience, social development during these important years should not be undervalued either. It’s true that young women at all-female campuse have chances to meet men at social gatherings, but my admittedly anecdotal experience talking with friends who attended Wellesley, Sweet Briar, Mills, and other single-sex colleges suggests that they spent a lot more time and energy seeking out contact with men than friends who chose co-ed schools. And in terms of confidence, my own daughter (and her female friends) at a co-ed Ivy League school could not be more confident in and outside of class, and they are equally comfortable dealing with male and female classmates, professors and administrators, so again, I think the author’s generalizations in this area too are unfounded. The stereotype of girls developing more fully in a single-sex atmosphere should perhaps be retired. And Jackie Kennedy, Hillary Clinton, Julia Child, Emily Dickinson, and many other women of previous generations attended all-female schools because the best colleges in the country were not enrolling women, and we can’t know if they would have choosen their alma maters given the choice.

jmccw: Most elite liberal arts colleges and universities, and a number of the less-elite ones, cost just as much as the Seven Sisters schools do. If your comment were true, then only 2% of both boys and girls would be considering elite co-ed schools, and that is demonstrably not the case. Ivy League and Seven Sisters schools also distinguish themselves by giving need-based financial assistance; despite their reputation for being accessible only to the wealthy, these schools provide tremendous assistance, provided you have the credentials to be accepted. While they’re not as diverse as many other, less expensive, schools, let’s not be disingenuous about the reasons: lower income kids are less likely to have had the grades and scores in high school that they need to be admitted to places like Harvard, because this country still has deep, deep problems where educating kids in poor areas and inner cities is concerned. Furthermore, these kids are conditioned to think the way that you do, and to limit themselves. They may not realize that they could go to Harvard. Sure, they might also just not want to go there, but if they can get in, then the folks at Harvard will try pretty darn hard to make it economically possible for them to go there.

I am a graduate of Wellesley, myself, and I loved my experience there. It was a fantastic school when I graduates almost 15 years ago, and it has only gotten better since then. I wish Hannah the best of luck, wherever she goes.

As someone who has taught at a private, religious liberal-arts college; a large state university; and now a private, non-religious liberal-arts college, I recommend the last group. You will get the best education. As someone married to a woman who went to an all-women’s, private, non-religious liberal-arts college, I wholeheartedly recommend the same. You will get the the best of the best education.

You might enjoy reading a memoir called “Ivy Days: Making My Way Out East” by Susan Allen Toth. It was about the author’s time spent at Smith, and it’s one of my favorite books. I’m pretty sure it’s out of print, but you might be able to find a used copy online.

I am yet another proud Wellesley alumna. Hannah, please know that the years spent at a women’s college afford incredible opportunities. You learn from the professors, from the staff, from the institution’s history, and most of all, from the other students. There is a commitment and a bond that follows you beyond the campus. The alumnae network is exceptionally active and links you with women of different generations around the world.

Many young women strike these schools off the list without a second thought, because it seems inconceivable to willingly sequester yourself from men. If you can get past that initial mental block, it can be a terrific option.

I had a great time at Wellesley. I befriended and dated men, but that wasn’t a significant focus of my college years. I studied, I worked, I researched, and most of all, I spent long days and nights talking and learning with women who were dynamic and thoughtful and committed to learning in order to help their communities as well as themselves.